Theories: Beast of Burden
by Shi-koi
Summary: Het - Crossover - YYH x Harry Potter - First in the 'Theories' series. In which Remus meets a very unique woman, and Shizuru is her usual self. COMPLETE


Title: Theories: Beast of Burden

Fandom: Yu Yu Hakusho / Harry Potter

Series: Theories

Rating: PG-13

Pairings: None yet.

Warnings: Slight violence, little bit of bad language.

Summary: First in the 'Theories' series. In which Remus meets a very unique woman, and Shizuru is her usual self. COMPLETE

* * *

She had that feeling again. The dull ache in her stomach, dry mouth and shaky hands. Either that or she needed a smoke, bad. 

Shizuru frowned, clenching and unclenching her hands, her younger brother had no cases with Urameshi, but if that was true, then why was she getting one of her 'feelings' now? She sighed, pushing her long brown hair out of the way with one hand as the other dug in her pockets for her smokes.

She flicked out a cigarette out of the packet with the ease of long habit, tucking the box away in her jeans before lighting it and taking a long drag, savouring the feeling of the nicotine filling her lungs with the smoke.

Taking a quick glance around the empty apartment, Shizuru shrugged, grabbing her coat and leaving to the local park, she had hours to kill before Kuwabara came home.

Two cigarettes later Shizuru finally acknowledged that the odd feeling was something serious. It just wasn't going away. She gave an absent greeting to a few of the kids who recognised her from her daily trips through the park, stopping to sit on a nearby bench to watch them play.

Shizuru hadn't been there for half an hour before a prickling on the back of her neck had her turning around surreptitiously, using the excuse of moving her long honey-brown hair out of her face to take a quick look behind her.

Someone was there, but they weren't watching her. A tallish man with grey-brown hair stumbled awkwardly out of the trees, holding his right shoulder awkwardly, his chest rising and falling in quick pants. He gave the area a quick once-over before wincing and straightening his back, hurrying away.

Shizuru narrowed her eyes, watching him carefully, but no-one followed him. She was about to dismiss him when that feeling came back full force. She knew that the man was hurt somehow, she'd patched up her idiot brother after missions enough times to be able to recognise the signs, but she _really_ didn't need to deal with something like this right now.

Cursing herself for being a fool, Shizuru stubbed out her smoke on the pavement, shoved her hands into the warmth of her coat and followed the man at a discreet distance, he was just too wary for her to get close.

The man led her through a merry chase through the streets, ducking down alleys and through the small back spaces between the shops, before Shizuru found herself falling back when the moved closer to a residential area, not wanting herself to be seen.

When the man stopped at a normal-seeming house and went inside Shizuru lit up another cigarette and leant against an available wall, waiting to see if the feeling would let her leave and go home. When the ache didn't abate, she rubbed her forehead and prepared herself for a long wait.

Fifteen minutes later the man left again, looking to be in an even worse condition. His dark slacks were scuffed and the old brown coat he wore hung off one side lopsidedly. Shizuru found herself frowning again, the poor man looked like he'd been thrown around.

She watched as he straightened himself out slowly, moving as though his very bones hurt, the wave of pain emanating from his slim frame virtually tangible on the mid-morning breeze, at least, for someone as spiritually aware as she happened to be.

Shizuru grimaced and started following him again, keeping her distance.

Less than three blocks away from the house Shizuru found herself freezing, warning bells setting off every nerve in her body. She pressed herself against the nearest wall, almost completely out of sight. A few seconds later a series of loud '_pop_'s were heard and six figures in odd black dress-type things suddenly surrounded the man.

Shizuru's eyes widened at the auras of malice that filled the air. The man seemed just as affected, lowering himself into a defensive crouch and pulling an odd stick out from his sleeve, just like the ones in the hands of the black-robed assailants.

Words shot back and forth between the person Shizuru supposed was in charge of the new people, but she couldn't understand what they were saying. It was not Japanese, and she'd never been that good with languages.

The black-robed man, (it was a man from his voice), gestured to the man she'd trailed, his voice hard and demanding. The slim grey haired male shook his head angrily, one hand waving wildly, the hand with the stick in it pointed firmly towards the other black-dressed man.

The man in black seemed to lose patience, and the grey-haired male snarled wordlessly, ducking the sudden yellow light that shot out of the other's stick.

Shizuru found herself holding her breath. Whatever that light had been it hadn't been nice. She could still feel the sickly aura that surrounded the light.

Something tugged at her, telling her that the man she'd been following was in serious trouble. With a groan, Shizuru wondered for a moment if being a hero was contagious, since she seemed to have caught the bug from her baby brother.

Shizuru sighed, walking forward towards the group. The man in black looked at her, saying something to the others. The grey haired man spinning round to look at her, his eyes wide with fear. He shouted something in that language, gesturing wildly for her to get away.

Shizuru ignored him, stopping a mere meter away from him, bringing out another cigarette from her pocket and lighting it.

"So." She said, in her usual, casual manner, "What's so interesting 'bout him?" Shizuru waved one empty hand towards the man in the centre of the almost-circle.

The man in black frowned, aiming his stick at himself and saying something, an odd white-pink light shooting from it and hitting him softly.

"Get away from here muggle." He said coldly.

Shizuru blinked. "See, I've lived here for a while, and I've been called all sorts of things...but muggle?" She shook her head, "That's new."

The man in black aimed his stick at her, and Shizuru knew a threat when she saw one.

"I wouldn't aim that thing at me," she said, flicking off some ash from her cigarette.

One of the other figures said something and two other sticks were suddenly aimed at her, the other three still aimed at the man in the middle. The man in black said something, waving the stick in a small pattern. Her instincts screamed at her, and Shizuru trusted them implicitly, ducking to the side and charging forward, knocking out one figure with a well-placed punch, and sweeping round to kick another one into the same state.

If knocking out demons had been easy, this was nothing.

She heard bone crunch as her elbow went directly into the centre of another black-clad figure, and Shizuru vaguely noticed the grey-haired male shooting out a coloured light from his stick at another figure, the target dropping like a stone.

The man in black suddenly disappeared with another _pop_, leaving Shizuru breathless in between three downed bodies, the last one falling to the other male.

Shizuru straightened her back, going to take another drag on her cigarette before twitching when she realised that at some point the thing had been squashed, leaving her with just the butt in her fingers. She snarled, kicking at the downed bodies viciously.

"That was my damn smoke you bastards!" She shook her fist at them, not caring that they couldn't see her. A choked gasp met her ears and she turned to see the man choking? Laughing? His eyes alight with mirth, undisguised relief buoying his feeling.

Shizuru stepped closer, looking him over. He wasn't too bad-looking as foreigners went, and that look of old sorrow in her eyes kinda reminded her of her kids, well, her brother's friends at least.

She stuck her hand out in a distinctly male fashion. "Kuwabara Shizuru."

The man blinked looking at her hand before tentatively placing his own in hers and shaking it. "Lupin Remus." he said in a soft voice.

"Well, see ya round." Shizuru said, turning and giving him a half wave over her shoulder as she walked away. She reached into her pocket for her cigarettes before realising that she'd just lost her last one. A curse filled the air as she crumpled the empty packet and threw it into a bin as she passed by.

Great, now she'd have to make a trip to the shops as well. Mind you, following a cute guy for over two hours wasn't really _that_ bad, and he did have a nice voice.

Pity she'd never see him again. And she _really_ needed another smoke.

* * *

End

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_(Re-edited 14th Feb, 2005)_


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